If people already have big CD collections, then they are happy to keep adding to them, but will this trend continue? With many young people who can get access to all of that back catalogue in a few hours online, it sort of removes the motivation to collect CDs. My CD collection would be near 1,000 items and I have some vinyl too – all of which took years to amass, and included tracking down some of the rare “classics” in second hand shops and on eBay. But I can't for the life of me see young folk spending that kind of money to “catch up” when they have an alternative, albeit illegal, option at their disposal.
But if a band can't sell their CD to people (when clearly, many people are still buying CDs, maybe the music just isn't “good” enough? Maybe it's the musicians who also have a slight sense of entitlement, that just because they write songs they feel entitled to a paycheck because that's how everyone else did it before them.
If there are still music fans out there who will buy CDs, and you just can't pitch your wares to these people hook, line and sinker, maybe you need to write better music. They might like the music, but they aren't blow away by it to the extent to go out and give you something back for it. I know free is very hard to compete with, but the fact remains that people still buy music. Try asking these people why they still buy music and then work out a way so that they'll feel the same way about your music. It's difficult, but who said trying to be a working musician was easy, eh?
